Welcome to the Hotel California
by Meowiegirl
Summary: After a car crash, Seto and Jou find themselves in a place that the living only see in their nightmares. SetoJou, MarikBakura


Welcome to the Hotel California  
  


A/N: I have been reading too many Stephen King books lately, I think... This story contains shounen-ai/yaoi: Seto/Jou, and Marik/Bakura.

//thoughts//

Enjoy...

______________________________________________________  
  
  
  


Seto Kaiba and Jounouchi Katsuya sped down the road in Jou's car. It was night, and they were returning from a nightclub that was about twenty miles away from Seto's home, which was now Jou's home as well. It was around two in the morning, and Jou was driving, as he'd had the least amount of drinks, but it was not safe; the car was an old, beat-up thing, and Seto was being distracting by belting out loud, drunken renditions of songs that were being played on the car's CD player (currently, Jou's Eagles CD). Fog had covered the moon and obscured the signs on the highway. Jou turned onto one of the roads that led off of the highway, thinking it was the right one; the one that led to home. It was not. Jou made several other turns, but the surroundings just became more and more alien to him. He could no longer remember which turns he had taken. The two in the car were now hopelessly lost, in a rural area that neither had seen before.   
  


And as Jou drove like a bat out of hell down the dark road, the lights on his car burnt out. Unable to see, he drove off of the road, and the car went spinning out of control. Seconds later, it hit a tree, sending Seto and Jou into unconsciousness.  
  


*** ** ***  
  


Seto awoke sometime later, in a strange, barren place where the ground was cracked and parched, and the sky was a deep and ominous red. Jou had apparently regained consciousness sometime earlier, as he could be seen several yards away, staring off into the distance.  
  


"Jou!," Seto called. He did not like this place, whatever it was. He could sense an evil air about it, and did not want himself or Jou to venture off alone.   
  


"Seto! You're awake! Can you stand?," Jou asked from where he was standing. He did not look away from that far-off place.  
  


"Yeah, think so, anyway," Seto answered, and set about answering that question. After several tries, the young man was on his feet, albeit not very steadily.  
  


"Come over here, Seto, there's something you should see," the sandy-haired teen said.  
  


Seto walked over to where Jou stood, and looked in the direction that Jou was looking.  
  


Seto whistled softly. "Weird... Wonder how that got there...," he whispered.  
  


The thing that the young men were looking at was a lone, dead tree in the distance. The ground was so parched that it would have been impossible for a tree to grow in the middle of such a desert, but one had grown and died there nonetheless.  
  


"Seto, where are we, anyway?," Jou asked, the first hints of panic entering his voice.  
  


"I... I'm not sure, Jou. I'm not sure," Seto replied. His voice quavered, and he seemed to be approaching tears.  
  


"Don't cry, Seto. I have no idea where the nearest water is. If you start crying, you'll only dehydrate yourself sooner."  
  


"Sooner? Sooner! Hell, Jou, we're going to die here, aren't we?! We're going to die here! I don't even know where here is! We could be on another planet for all I know, and we're going to die here, alone...," Seto broke off into panicked sobs.  
  


"We're not alone," Jou murmured, holding Seto, "We have each other..."  
  


The two started to walk towards the dead tree in the distance, wondering where they were and how they could escape. Over two hours later, Seto and Jou had reached the tree. What they saw there would haunt them for the rest of their lives.  
  


The two young men stared in mute horror at the tree. The silence was broken several moments later, when a voice that Jou recognized as Yami's reached their ears.  
  


"Well, well... We have a couple of new toys, it seems. Come here, Marik, Bakura," Yami said.  
  


Seto turned around and began to scream hysterically.  
  


What they had seen on the tree had once been two of their friends; Ryou and Malik. The two in the tree had had their throats cut open, and the blood, still fresh, was dripping onto the cracked ground below. Ryou and Malik hung from the tree by nooses tied around their necks. But Yami... Yami was holding the bloodied corpse of his sweet little hikari, Yuugi, whose throat was also cut. Yami's clothes were dripping blood.  
  


"No... Yuugi... Yuugi!," Jou whispered.  
  


Seto had stopped shrieking and was now making soft keening sounds in the back of his throat. His eyes had glazed over, and he swayed on his feet. This struck Marik and Bakura as hilarious.  
  


"Look at him... So defenseless, it's almost not fair to play with him, but the other one, the blonde... He can be our new toy, love," Marik snickered to Bakura.  
  


"Yes, he could, at that," Bakura replied.  
  


"NO! Please, I know you! You're my friend! You couldn't have killed them, you couldn't have, I'm just dreaming, just dreaming, I'll wake up soon...," Jou was sobbing now, as he shouted at Yami.  
  


"The likes of you, knows me?," Yami sneered, "I don't think he's suitable, my friends... He seems to be one of the crazed ones. And I thought that something as tough-looking as that could last! I suppose the only alternative is death."  
  


Bakura looked disappointed. "But what about his friend?"  
  


"Kill him first."  
  


Jou had been waiting for this moment, when their backs were turned from him. He crawled over to where Seto lay curled up and whimpering, and helped him to stand.  
  


"Okay, you can stand. Now, we have to-," Jou was cut off as Marik turned around.  
  


"They're trying to escape!," he shouted.  
  


"RUN!," Jou screamed.  
  


"What will we do now?," Marik asked, a predatory look in his eyes as he glanced at Seto and Jou's retreating forms.  
  


"Let the desert claim them," smirked Bakura.  
  


"Good idea," Marik murmured, and leaned down to claim Bakura's lips.  
  


Seto and Jou ran as fast as they could. When, after almost an hour, they stopped to catch their breath, Jou looked over at Seto and noticed that he was shaking. Seto's eyes were glazed over, and he was panting.  
  


"The tree... They- they were in the tree... Oh, God... That tree- I've seen it before. I- I can't remember where... THEY WERE IN THE TREE!"   
  


Seto, having said that, began to make sobbing noises, but did not cry. He was completely hysterical with fear, and then he curled up on the ground. Jou had never seen Seto like this before, and looked around for anything that might help them.  
  


It was then that he saw the lights in the distance- city lights.  
  


"Come on, Seto, there's a city there. We can get there in a few hours, we can get help," Jou said. He nearly laughed with happiness  
  


"No, Jou. It's all wrong, don't you see?," Seto whispered, "Nothing is right, not here."  
  
  
  
"Seto, it's a city! There are people there, people who will help! It's better than dying out here in the desert!"  
  


"Okay, but promise me one thing, Jou. We cannot get separated. Something about this place feels wrong, it's not safe."  
  


Seto, who had been sitting on the ground after he got over his hysterics, got up, and the two began to walk towards the city.  
  
Three hours later, they arrived. The sun had gone down, and the sky was studded with stars. There was a full moon, a blood red moon. As the two young men walked farther in to the city, they were lulled by the warm air and the starlight. Finally, they reached the center of the town. It was busy and crowded, like a beach town at night. People called to their friends, and cut in front of Seto and Jou, but these people did not seem normal. One look into their eyes, and you could tell that they were soulless; they were just going through the motions with no thought whatsoever.  
  


And then, Seto caught sight of a familiar face in the crowd, and he stopped for a moment. People pushed between him and Jou, and after a moment, Jou had been swept away in the throng of people. The girl that Seto had recognized had seen him as well, and she moved through the crowd with surprising ease, reaching him only seconds later. Seto paled when he realized who the girl was.  
  


"Hi, Seto! Remember me?," Shizuka giggled in that little girl's voice that she seemed to have, even though she had been eighteen.  
  


//Oh no. No nonononononononono//, Seto thought.  
  


Shizuka had died last year. She had hung herself from a light fixture in her room. It had been ruled a suicide. After all, who could live with themself after what she'd done?  
  


*********

Seto had been awakened by the phone ringing in the middle of the night.  
  


"Hello?," he muttered groggily, wondering who would call at two in the morning.  
  


"Seto! Oh, god, Seto! You- you have to come over as soon as you can," came Shizuka's voice from the other end of the phone, "Jou as well." She sounded scared.  
  


"Why?"  
  


"The- the blood... It won't come off my hands! I try and try, but it doesn't- It won't- Oh, Seto, their blood! It's all over my hands, all over me, all over my living room!" Shizuka's frantic voice was rising in pitch and intensity with every word, until she was shrieking into the phone.  
  
  
  


As soon as Seto and Jou arrived at Shizuka's house, Jou fainted. There really was blood all over her living room, as well as a bloody butcher's knife on the floor. Shizuka's clothes and hair were covered as well. After Jou had been laid down in a guest bedroom, Seto began to ask questions of Shizuka.  
  


"What happened, Shizuka? Did anyone hurt you?," Seto asked, believing that Shizuka had been the victim of the knife.  
  


"You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me happy when skies are gray...," Shizuka sang in a broken voice that sounded like that of a toddler.  
  


//She's cracked//, Seto thought to himself.  
  


Upon further inspection, Shizuka was found to be perfectly healthy... physically. Mentally, she was a wasteland. Something had happened that had caused her to break down completely, and Seto meant to find out what. The first thing Seto had done upon entering the house was to call the police, and they were knocking on the door right now. Seto went to answer, and the police began to examine the scene of the crime. It was then that a young officer decided that she would check Shizuka's bedroom for clues. When the officer walked into the room, she gasped, and nearly screamed.  
  


Honda and Otogi, both obviously dead after being stabbed multiple times, had been sat in two chairs in Shizuka's bedroom.  
  


No wonder Shizuka had screamed, "NO! DON'T GO IN!" at the top of her lungs when the young officer went in to investigate.  
  


That night, Seto had an awful nightmare, about a hellish desert with a red sky and one dead tree, from which two of his friends hung.  
  


Later that year, Shizuka was sent to a lunatic asylum, having never fully recovered from the shock of killing her two suitors, and being sentenced to life in an asylum, instead of prison. No one ever found out why she'd done it, either. Everyone had always said that she never seemed quite right in the head, but for her to murder people was completely unexpected. On the one-year anniversary of the double-murder, Shizuka hung herself in her room.  
  


*********  
  


Seto was brought back to the present by the girl who had been almost his sister-in-law tugging on the sleeve of his t-shirt.  
  


"Come on, Seto, let's go to the hotel!," Shizuka giggled.  
  


//Wait- if Shizuka is here, and she's dead, that must mean that... Oh, God...//, Seto thought, as memories of the car crash came flooding back to him.  
  


Seto and Shizuka walked to the hotel. He could see the big, flashing neon sign. It read, "HOTEL CALIFORNIA", and underneath, in smaller lettering, "You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave."  
  


Seto remembered the song that he'd been singing before the car crashed- "Hotel California", by the Eagles.   
  


He allowed himself to be led into the yard of the hotel. //Like a lamb to the slaughter//, that cynical part of his brain thought, but curiosity overcame common sense. He had to know whether or not he was dead. //You already have a good idea of that, my friend. You are, just put everything together, and deal with it. That's what you've done whenever life has dealt you a crap hand, so the same should be true for death.//  
  


As he and Shizuka walked to the center of the yard, she stopped many times to be kissed and hugged by the young men that were in the yard. The women merely gave her cold nods of recognition.  
  


"You're lucky, Seto. Tonight, we are celebrating," Shizuka giggled. Her giggling, childish voice seemed out of place when compared to the ruthless smile that she wore, and the predatory gleam in her eyes.  
  


Seto screamed a loud, blood-curdling scream when he saw what was tied to the table. It was his Jou.  
  


"Won't you join us?," Shizuka inquired sweetly, as she slit open one of Jou's thin wrists, and held a cup out for the blood to fall into. "Here, drink," she said, pushing the cup in Seto's face.  
  


"No! I love him!," Seto screamed. He picked up Jou and began to run for the door of the hotel. He pushed through the crowd, ran through the lobby and through the front door, and everything went black.  
  


~~~~~~~~~~~  
  


Seto woke up in the hospital, looking into Ryou's sweet, concerned face.  
  


"We were so scared, Seto. You died on the way to the hospital and then again in surgery, and they were having a hard time saving you," Ryou smiled.  
  


He was alive. Ryou was alive.  
  


"Where's Jou?," Seto asked frantically.  
  


"He's in surgery. You both got banged up something awful," Bakura said, and whistled in amazement.  
  


Seto, hearing this, looked down. He had many bandages and stitches, and the pain killers that he had apparently been given were starting to take effect. The last thing he heard before he fell asleep was a nurse poking her head in to the room and saying, "I think Jou is going to pull through."  
  


The hikaris left to get some breakfast, after staying at their friend's side all night. The yamis, however, stayed.  
  


"Those two were lucky," murmured Yami.  
  


"Yes, they were able to check out," Marik agreed, pulling Bakura on to his lap, "but they can never leave."  
  


"Neither can we," Bakura mused, leaning back to kiss Marik.  
  


Several months later, Jou and Seto were in the United States, due to Seto's business. They were driving down a highway in the desert. It was night, and there were no other cars on the road. The night was beautiful and warm, with light breeze that ruffled the hair of the two young men. Seto laughed, and leaned over to kiss Jou. They were in paradise, but it was getting late, and they wanted to stop somewhere for the night. They saw a motel by the side of the road, and decided to stop there. The motel had a neon sign that did not work anymore, except for a slight flickering of a letter "L".  
  


The two walked in the door after parking their car. The boys looked through the window, and saw a beach outside that had not been there before. Even though it was night, there were people dancing, and at the center of it all was pretty little Shizuka, the sweet girl who'd gone mad and committed a double murder. They looked at the sign on the desk sign on the desk, which said, "Welcome to the Hotel California- You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave." 

Seto and Jou's hearts began to pound. Or would have, but the two young men no longer had heartbeats.  
  


_______________________________________  
  


So, how'd ya like it? Did I scare you? See, this is what comes from reading too many Stephen King books and listening to "Hotel California" repeatedly.

Disclaimer: Do I look like I own "Hotel California" or Yu-Gi-Oh? For those of you that are too dense to figure that out on their own, I DON'T!!  
  


Please review! Thankees!

"On a dark desert highway

Cool wind in my hair

Warm smell of colitas

Rising up through the air

Up ahead in the distance

I saw a shimmering light

My head grew heavy, and my sight grew dim

I had to stop for the night

There she stood in the doorway

I heard the mission bell

And I was thinking to myself

This could be Heaven or this could be Hell

Then she lit up a candle

And she showed me the way

There were voices down the corridor

I thought I heard them say  
  


Welcome to the Hotel California

Such a lovely place

Such a lovely place (background)

Such a lovely face

Plenty of room at the Hotel California

Any time of year

Any time of year (background)

You can find it here

You can find it here  
  


Her mind is Tiffany twisted

She's got the Mercedes bends

She's got a lot of pretty, pretty boys

That she calls friends

How they dance in the courtyard

Sweet summer sweat

Some dance to remember

Some dance to forget

So I called up the Captain

Please bring me my wine

He said

We haven't had that spirit here since 1969

And still those voices are calling from far away

Wake you up in the middle of the night

Just to hear them say  
  


Welcome to the Hotel California

Such a lovely Place

Such a lovely Place (background)

Such a lovely face

They're livin' it up at the Hotel California

What a nice surprise

What a nice surprise (background)

Bring your alibies  
  


Mirrors on the ceiling

Pink champagne on ice

And she said

We are all just prisoners here

Of our own device

And in the master's chambers

They gathered for the feast

They stab it with their steely knives

But they just can't kill the beast

Last thing I remember

I was running for the door

I had to find the passage back to the place I was before

Relax said the nightman

We are programed to recieve

You can check out any time you like

But you can never leave"  
  


- The Eagles, "Hotel California"  
  


  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



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